Manufacturing of Nutritional Yeast: National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP)

Rule Summary

The nutritional yeast manufacturing sector includes facilities that manufacture varieties of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (also referred to as nutritional yeast, or baker’s yeast) for the purpose of becoming an ingredient in bread dough or other yeast-raised baked products, or for becoming a nutritional food additive intended for consumption by humans. The nutritional yeast manufacturing source category does not include the production of yeast intended for consumption by animals (for example, as an additive for livestock feed).

The National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for this sector was proposed in 1998 and promulgated in 2001. In these actions, the EPA identified acetaldehyde as the hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emitted in the largest quantities from the manufacturing of nutritional yeast. The standards for this sector consist of a volatile organic compound (VOC) concentration limit (as a surrogate for acetaldehyde) and a percent-of-batches requirement.

See the regulations in the section below for more details.